TiECON Chandigarh 2018 – A Mega Success in the Age of Disruption – Raises a Humungous Funding of 3.60 Crores

The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) successfully conducted TiECON Chandigarh 2018 – The Biggest Entrepreneurship Event of the North held on 8th and 9th March 2018 at ISB, Mohali Campus. The event was graced by luminary speakers from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Nagaland. The Chief Minister of Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh delivered a keynote to the attendees which was chaired by Alok Ramsisaria – President of TiE Chandigarh & CEO of Grazitti Interactive.

The conclave indulged in a series of informative and interactive sessions with over 40 accomplished speakers and 50 chairs, including the likes of Daniel Carmon – Ambassador of Israel to India; Sir Dominic Asquith KCMG – British High Commissioner to the Republic of India; Vivek Atray – Formerly of the IAS, Author and Motivational Speaker; Nandu Nandkishore – Angel VC, Mentor & Coach; Sudhanshu Vats – Group CEO at Viacom18 Media Private Limited; Dr. Shamika Ravi – Member, PM’s Economic Advisory Council; Hekani Jhakalu – Founder & Chair, Youthnet; Dr. Madhu Chitkara – Vice Chancellor, Chitkara University, and many more. Daniel Carmon and Sir Dominic Asquith shed light on the prevailing ecosystem and put forth their views about improving the business relations between the nations in the near future.

The first day at TiECON Chandigarh featured an array of workshops conducted by some of the leading industry experts. These workshops included those on – Content, Conversations and Connections by Atul Sharma – COO, Genesis Burson Marsteller; Fine Tune Your Start-up Pitch by Erik Azulay – Director, Nexus Innovation Hub; Innovation, Disruption and Design Thinking by Murali Talasila – Partner & Innovation Leader at PwC; and Art and Science of Storytelling by Deeptha Vivekanand.

On the second day, a number of panel discussions and masterclasses happened, which revolved around the subject of Entrepreneurship in the Age of Disruption. Some of the panel discussions and masterclasses happened on – Leveraging Big Data to Gain a Competitive Advantage (ISB) by Prof. Vishnuprasad Nagadevara – Former Professor and Dean, IIM Bangalore, Adjunct Faculty at various IIMs, Visiting Faculty at ISB; Cultivating Your Greatest Asset – Your Customer Base by Priyanka Agarwal – Co-Founder & CEO- Wishberry, Rahul Narvekar, Founder, The India Network, ex CEO Indian Roots and Pradeep Chopra, CEO- Digital Vidya; Why You Shouldn’t Raise Money by Dhimant Parekh, Founder & CEO- TheBetterIndia, Daniel Wolfe, Co-Founder- Soaq, Deepak Goel, Founder- Karma Circle; and What it takes to be an Angel Investor by Padmaja Ruparel, Co- Founder IAN & Founding Partner at IAN Fund.

One of the highlights at the event was The Start-up Bazaar. Over 300 start-up ideas went through a series of evaluation and 42 of them made it into the Start-up Bazaar, where they got a chance to showcase their ideas to the attendees. Top four ideas reached the final round – Chandigarh Pitch Night – facilitated by Chandigarh Angels Network (CAN). The array of investors included investors from CAN, The Angel’s Network (TAN), Contrarian Capital, Venture East and other independent investors from Hyderabad, Mumbai, Haryana and Punjab.

The finalists were able to raise a record-breaking funding of 3.60 crores at the pitch night – with 1.85 crores commitment on the spot and 1.75 crores subject to further evaluation – double its predecessor in 2017. The start-ups which raised the funding included – TPOT – A Chaaye Naashta Kiosk and Delivery start-up in Delhi – received a commitment of 45 lacs on the spot and an additional one crore subject to evaluation. SumHR – HRMS service provider raised an amount of 65 lacs on the spot with another 75 lacs subject to evaluation. Hyderabad-based start-up www.evibe.in bagged a funding of 50 lacs and an additional 25 lacs subject to evaluation, and 3 DEXTER – a Delhi-based 3D Printing training start-up secured a funding of 25 lacs.